LAMP Gets a Break

An innovative project to help the mentally ill in downtown Los Angeles has been held hostage for months due to skirmishing by the city and area merchants over development and zoning in the Skid Row area. Under a compromise reached last week, renovation of a building on Crocker Street can proceed and the Los Angeles Men’s Place now can provide transitional housing, jobs, and public showers and toilets.

In a rare show of agreement in dealing with the homeless, Los Angeles city and county governments had agreed all along that the project was important. Mollie Lowery, the director of what is now known as LAMP, and her backers had obtained financial help and other support from the city, county and state as well as from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Despite delays, they kept architects working on plans even as the Central City East Assn. fought the project, first before the zoning authorities, then before City Council, then in the courts.

Their faith paid off last week when Mayor Tom Bradley and other local officials announced a compromise. The merchants withdrew their suit and the city agreed to give the toy manufacturers and food suppliers in the area a stronger voice in planning for their section of downtown.

The merchants are right that their area should not bear the full brunt of the city’s homeless problem. Government officials are right that this project should go forward. The future of the LAMP project now seems assured. The wider need to help the homeless throughout the Los Angeles area can be met only if officials who worked out this compromise now encourage other areas to follow suit with other innovative programs.